[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/minority_report_interface1_1250.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[TechnologyPorn What a nice display!]]]]

->'''Dr. Iris Hineman''': Most of the time, all three precognitives will see things the same way but'' once ''in a while one of them will see things differently than the others.\\
'''John Anderton''': Jesus Christ, why didn't I know about this?\\
'''Dr. Hineman''': Because these "[[TitleDrop minority reports]]" are destroyed the instant they occur.

''Minority Report'' is a 2002 science fiction film by Creator/StevenSpielberg, loosely based on the PhilipKDick story "The Minority Report". It takes place in UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC and Virginia in the year 2054, and centers around a new and experimental branch of the police, the "Precrime division," which tracks murders about to happen with the aid of three "precognitive" psychics who can see the future in limited flashes.

Of course, things start to get tricky when one of the Precrime officers, John Anderton (TomCruise) gets flagged by the precogs as a future murderer. Now, he is forced to evade his own fellow officers as he tries to figure out why he would want to murder a man he's never even heard of yet...

One of both Spielberg and Cruise's most successful films, not only raking in more than three times its hundred-million-dollar budget worldwide, but also scoring nearly universal acclaim from critics with a 92% on RottenTomatoes. RogerEbert named it the best film of 2002.
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!! This movie contains examples of:
* AdaptationalAttractiveness: In the short story, Anderton was fat, bald, and old. Additionally, the precogs looked rather more unearthly - they were described as [[NotEvenHuman mutated]] {{Talkative Loon}}s whose babblings were translated by computer into prophecies.
* AdaptationExpansion
* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: The event that kicks the plot off -- Anderton's future murder -- is explained as a paradox in the book; The three Precogs usually produce fairly similar visions, which is then averaged by computer modeling, but occasionally, one will have a vision distinct from the other two, usually due to the murderer's likelihood of actually committing the murder - the titular "Minority Report." If the minority report is not a murder, then the average is that the subject will commit a murder. If the minority report is a murder, then the average is that the subject will not commit a murder. In the end it is discovered that Anderton [[spoiler:has ''three'' Minority Reports - all three Precogs saw ''wildly'' different futures. One Precog saw the future where he commits a murder, one saw a future where he does not, and the third saw a future based on decisions he makes upon seeing the other two reports ''yet commits the murder anyway.'' The two "murder" futures averaged to a "murder" prediction, but such a thing could only occur to the director of Precrime, as he is the only one who could choose to view the individual reports instead of the average assembled by computer modeling.]] This absolute '''''MindScrew''''' is missing from the film in favor of a simpler plot; Anderton [[spoiler:accidentally awakens a precog, who shows him a vision of her mother's murder - which was arranged by the BigBad. Anderton retrieves the vision and shows it to the Big Bad - who then decides [[HeKnowsTooMuch Anderton Knows Too Much]], and hires a junkie to confess to the murder of Anderton's son, the one thing that would drive Anderton to murder.]]
* AdultFear: Anderton losing his son in the few seconds he looks away...
** [[spoiler:Anne Lively's daughter was more or less taken from her by the government and horribly experimented on. She is unable to save her, and is killed for her efforts.]]
* AdvertOverloadedFuture: Walking down the street has become a hyperstimulating nightmare, as talking holographic advertisements use retinal scans to sell directly to you. Constantly.
* AndIMustScream: Daily life for the precogs: Watching murders again and again while being drugged. When Agatha finally gets a chance to scream she promptly does so.
* ArcWords: "Can you see?"
** Related, there are quite a few bits of dialog mentioning "eyes" in some context.
* AutomatedAutomobiles
* [[spoiler:BabiesEverAfter: played pleasantly straight.]]
* BackAlleyDoctor: The dude Anderton goes to for an [[EyeScream eyeball transplant]], brilliantly and nauseatingly rendered by PeterStormare.
* BaitAndSwitchGunshot: The one covered in ConveyorBeltODoom.
* BatmanColdOpen: Anderton and the Precrime Division arrest a man who was about to kill his wife and her lover. Also uses Danny Witwer as the AudienceSurrogate during the scene to ask how everything works, getting the audience familiar with the process.
* BerserkButton: "Don't you ''EVER SAY HIS NAME''! [[spoiler:You used the memory of my dead son to set me up! It was the one thing you knew that would drive me to murder!"]]
* TheBigBoard
* BigBrotherIsWatching
* BigNo: Agatha, [[spoiler: when Crow got killed anyway despite Anderton not actually doing it quite as predicted.]]
* BilingualBonus: Let's just say the BackAlleyDoctor is NOT very kind to his partner, who in turn is really creepy in a pervy way. Of course, you don't need to be fluent in Swedish to pick up on that.
* BizarreBabyBoom: The precogs are the children of [[FantasticDrug "Neuroin" (New hEROIN)]] addicts.
* BlackComedy: Most of what Solomon says. Additionally, there's an amusing moment when Burgess has just [[spoiler: murdered Witwer]] and receives a call from Lana telling him that Anderton is at her cottage. She asks Burgess not to tell Witwer, upon which Burgess glances at [[spoiler: Witwer's body]] and replies "I won't say a word."
* BlackHelicopter: The jump jets used by the police.
* BlatantLies: The Precrime tour guide has a, shall we say, rather idealized story of Precog life to tell the kiddies.
* BlindMistake
* BlindWithoutEm: Used to creepy effect.
* BloodyHilarious: The scene in which Anderton accidentally drops his original eyeballs on a sloped floor and has to chase after them might as well have "Yakety Sax" playing over it.
* BodyMotifs: Eyes are absolutely ''everywhere''. The identification system in D.C. is based on retinal scanners. An important character is called "Iris". Names of victims and perpetrators are carved into wooden balls which resemble eyes. The ArcWords of the film are "Can you see?" And so on and so forth.
* BorrowedBiometricBypass: Retinal scanners are everywhere. Solution: eyeball transplant.
* BrownNote: One of the more interesting less-lethal options available to the Pre-Crime cops is the Sick-Stick, a collapsable baton that induces violent vomiting in the target.
* BulletHolesAndRevelations: The death of [[spoiler:Burgess]].
* CasualDangerDialogue: Anderton and Fletcher, when the Pre Cops have cornered him in an alleyway, take a moment to discuss Fletcher's rough landing due to a bad knee.
* ChekhovsArmoury: When escaping through the mall, short-range precognition causes this.
* ChekhovsGun: Burgess' award is a literal example
* ChekhovsSkill:
** Anderton holding his breath.
** Anderton was always a skilled runner.
* ConvenientlyInterruptedDocument: When Anderton finally gets access to Agatha's precognition of the murder of Anne Lively, the vision plays backwards and cuts out immediately before revealing who the killer is. Anderton ignores this because the would-be killer has already been arrested and incarcerated [[spoiler: or so he thinks.]]
* ConveyorBeltODoom: The fight in the car factory.
* {{Cyberpunk}}
* DestinationDefenestration: Subverted. Anderton tackles a man who is about to murder his wife, sending both of them flying at the bedroom window. They only make it partway through the window.
** Played straight later with the death of Leo Crow.
* DirtyMindReading: Rufus apologizes for his dirty thoughts when he realizes that Agatha is a precog.
** Dirty thoughts involving [[KissingCousins his ''cousin'']]
* DownerEnding: Depending on [[EpilepticTrees your interpretation]].
** May also be a BittersweetEnding as [[spoiler:Precrime gets shut down, but the precogs are free, and Anderton and his wife get back together.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Burgess.]]
* EverythingIsAnIpodInTheFuture
* ExtremeGraphicalRepresentation: The Precrime computers. Just don't pick your nose.
* EyelessFace: The dealer from whom Anderton buys his drugs, possibly sold them to a BackAlleyDoctor.
* EyeScream: See BorrowedBiometricBypass and BackAlleyDoctor, above.
** The movie in general has an eye theme going on. You can just imagine.
* FacialRecognitionSoftware: Used realistically here.
* FakeAmerican: Averted. The seemingly American Danny Witiwer mentions how he saw his father "shot on the steps of our church in Dublin". This line was added in because Spielberg wasn't convinced Colin Farrel would be able to completely shake his Irish accent (although he does give a fairly convincing performance).
* FantasticDrug: "Neuroin" (New hEROIN). Instead of overloading opiate receptors like present-day dope, this junk somehow numbs ''emotional'' pain with [[FunctionalAddict few physical side effects]]. Except the part where [[{{Scanners}} pregnant women]] who take it [[BizarreBabyBoom give birth]] to Precognitives.
* FastRoping
* FilmNoir: In interviews with Spielberg he described the film as being very much within the ''noir'' (or perhaps neo-''noir'') tradition, and during the pre-production phase he sat down with many classic ''noirs'' (among them ''Film/TheMalteseFalcon'' and ''Film/TheAsphaltJungle'') for inspiration.
* FrameUp: [[spoiler: Double subverted with]] Anderton, and played straight with [[spoiler: Crow]].
* FunctionalAddict: Anderton is addicted to Neroin, though this doesn't seem to hinder him in his job or in his ongoing attempt to avoid arrest and clear his name. Mostly he just uses it as a coping mechanism for his depression and severe stress.
* FuturisticSuperhighway: MAGLEV (magnetic levitation) highways, loosely inspired by existing train lines in China. The highways are substantially different from those in the present day, allowing some cars to drive themselves, let law enforcement easily intercept cars harboring suspected criminals by changing the vehicle's travel route and destination, and (most notable of all) drive up vertical roads.
* GardenOfEvil: Iris Hineman's greenhouse.
* AGodIAmNot: Witwer notes that some people have begun to worship the pre-cogs as godlike, divine creatures, but Anderton very pointedly insists that they are nothing of the kind. The pre-cogs themselves, naturally, can express no opinion on the matter.
* GunStruggle
* HaveYouToldAnyoneElse: And for a limited time, this trope comes with an IdiotBall, free of charge!
** Of course, the character in question didn't seem to [[CreekMoment connect the dots]] until he was already in the room [[OhCrap alone with the villain]].
* HeyItsThatGuy: I know that [[Film/{{Daredevil}} catholic]] [[InBruges Irishman]] from somewhere...
** Also, something tells me that the death of Anne Lively is not the first ''Series/ColdCase'' Lara has helped solve.
** Appropriate that the guy in charge of Precrime, an organization based around preventing murders, is played by [[TheSeventhSeal Antonius Block]]. Might almost qualify as a CastingGag.
* HiddenInPlainSight: During the chase at the mall Agatha insisted they stay out in the open while a SWAT team was about to survey the entire plaza. [[spoiler: A large collection of balloons hides them from the SWAT vantage point and they were able to sneak away, virtually in plain sight.]]
* HolographicTerminal: The Precrime division gets the coolest computers EVER.
* HumanPopsicle: Implied fate of future murderers.
* IdiotBall: Anderton learns that he's been predicted to go to a specific place at a specific time to kill someone he's never met. Even though he absolutely believes in Precrime, he is convinced this particular vision is bunk because he has no motivation that he knows of. Since he's aware of where and when he will commit this murder, the logical thing to do would be to hide himself until such time that the vision is rendered invalid, at worst proving that the Precogs' vision was wrong (or, one could argue, was prevented because he himself chose to prevent it). The subsequent investigation could then be carried out at his leisure. Instead, he follows the vision to the best of his ability, thus placing him in that situation and allowing himself to be easily framed.
* ImportantHaircut
* INeverSaidItWasPoison: Or drowning, in this case.
* InNameOnly: The short story has the ''exact opposite'' [[AnAesop message]], with Anderton [[spoiler:willingly going away (to a much less {{dystopia}}n sentence) to preserve an otherwise perfect system - the inaccurate precog reports, for paradox-related reasons, could only ever have happened to the guy who ''personally read them.'']]
* InstantOracleJustAddWater
* IrishPriest: Witwer spent a year in seminary before joining the police.
* IronicNurseryTune: The BackAlleyDoctor's nurse sings the Swedish nursery song ''Små grodorna'' ("Small frogs") with the original ''Ej öron, ej öron, ej svansar hava de'' ("no ears, no ears, no tails they have") replaced by ''Ej ögon, ej ögon'' ("no eyes they have").
* JetPack: Standard police issue, no less.
* JumpScare: When Agatha grabs Anderton's arm in the Temple.
* KillHimAlready: [[spoiler:Inverted with Crow. Crow tells ''Anderton'' to kill ''him'' already so that his family can get the money he was promised.]]
* LatexPerfection: Subverted. The method used looks extremely painful.
* LawmanGoneBad: The trope is both subverted and played straight. For a while, it seems as if John Anderton will become a murderer, since he's already abusing illegal drugs to cope with the death of his son. In fact, it's [[spoiler:his boss, Lamar Burgess]], who has been committing murders to [[spoiler:validate the pre-crime system]].
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: At one point, an officer says they have 51 minutes and 28 seconds to stop Anderton from committing the murder. Since it occurs much sooner in the movie, this appears to be a reversal of the MagicCountdown trope, until one realizes that the time period mentioned was [[FridgeBrilliance the exact amount of running time left in the movie.]]
* LifeImitatesArt: The transparent data tiles used by Precrime are being developed in real life.
** Interestingly, those transparent data tiles are actually Iomega Clik/[=PocketZip=] disks with the metal bits (and logos) replaced with the transparent material, making this life imitating art imitating ProductPlacement.
** Also, the multitouch technologies used by gadgets such as the [=iPhone=] have some similarity with the Pre-Crime interface.
** With the [=iPad=] this is even closer. ''Especially'' to the smaller tablet-sized systems the Precrime officers use.
* LotusEaterMachine: The containment cells are said to be this.
* MagicFloppyDisk: A very retro accessory on the otherwise very futuristic computers.
* MercyLead: Offered to Anderton by the precogs' caretaker. In this case, it comes with an extra (unremarked-upon) wrinkle - since John is wanted for a ''future'' killing, the caretaker is becoming an accessory to that murder by allowing him to go free.
* NeedleInAStackOfNeedles: The protagonist escapes by blending into a crowd of people with similar, if not identical, umbrella design when it's raining.
* NoOSHACompliance: No one's on duty in the fully-automated Lexus plant, at the very least to hit a cutoff switch when a man wanders onto the assembly line. Oddly enough this doesn't occur to any of the police charged with delivering a suspect safely as possible, either.
* NonLinearCharacter: Agatha is so used to seeing nothing but the future that after Anderton breaks her out of Precrime she has to ask him "Is this now?", as it's been so long since she's seen the present.
* OhCrap: When the precogs predict Leo Crowe's murder by Anderton, their caretaker offers him a MercyLead. On the way out, Anderton gets stuck in an elevator with Danny Witwer, the InternalAffairs agent. Witwer confronts Anderton about his [[FantasticDrug neuroin]] addiction, and Anderton in turn accuses Witwer of framing him and pulls a gun on him.
-->'''Witwer''': Come on, John, I know you're not going to kill me. I don't hear a [[RedAlert red ball]].
** Naturally, this is the moment the MercyLead expires, and the "imminent murder" alarm goes off. Witwer reacts [[OhCrap appropriately]].
** Anderton gets a very brief one [[spoiler: when he hears that he is also charged with Danny Witwer's death right when he is haloed.]]
* OrgyOfEvidence: The TropeNamer.
* PackedHero: Played for drama as Anderton navigates a conveyor belt, then for sheer [[RuleOfCool cool]] as he drives off in the completed car.
* PaintingTheMedium: Most of the film is very heavily stylized, with deliberate overlighting, high contrasts between dark and light and a very obvious blue tint to the visuals. However, when Anderton has a {{Flashback}} to bringing his son to a swimming pool, the scene is shot and lit in a more conventional, naturalistic manner.
* ParanoiaFuel: In-universe. The surgeon [[SarcasmMode thanks]] Anderton for the [[PrisonRape enlightenment]] he had in prison while prepping him for surgery. Turns out that prison did improve him, because he performs the surgery flawlessly. He even throw some [[ChekhovsGun useful items]] on the deal, [[SincerityMode so he]] ''[[SincerityMode was]]'' [[SincerityMode grateful]]. The extent on which he ''[[HoYay enjoyed]]'' [[PrisonRape the experience]] is left at [[FanDisservice viewers discretion]].
* PeopleJars: The containment facilities, and to a lesser extent the pool containing the precogs.
* PoweredByAForsakenChild: Precrime, quite literally.
* PosthumousCharacter: [[spoiler: Anne Lively.]]
* PrecisionFStrike: When Anderton confronts the man who apparently [[spoiler:kidnapped his son.]]
* PrisonRape: Solomon says that avoiding this was his main motivation behind spending so much time in the prison library during his incarceration in Baltimore.
* ProductPlacement: In the future we will shop at the Gap, eat Burger King, drink Guinness, and pay for it with American Express. And the best part is, none of their logos have changed in the last 50 years. When Anderton looks at his watch, you can see that it is a Bvlgari. However, through most of the film, he's wearing a different watch altogether and we don't notice it because we don't see the logo.
** Though some of it is to show how ads are everywhere in this world without privacy.
** Also: the ads know your name, your buying history, your basic medical vital stats (at the moment you walk past) like pulse and respiration rate, and...?
** Spielberg did this on purpose to show exactly how invasive it ''could'' get. It may or may not have had the same effect with made-up products, but then the studio would've had to pay someone to make up products. This way they get verisimilitude ''and'' sponsorship money.
* PsychicPowers: Specifically, precognition.
* PublicDomainSoundtrack
* ReadingYourRights: Very powerfully invoked here, since Anderton was wrestling for a very long time over whether or not he was going to shoot the man he suspected of [[spoiler:kidnapping his son. The cop side won.]]
* [[RealIsBrown Real is Kind Of Blue]]: Used to invoke a futuristic feel (that's why the only scene that doesn't use it is a {{flashback}}).
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Lamar Burgess seems to act this way towards Anderton.
* RewindReplayRepeat: Anderton flips through a few frames of video which show a kid quickly moving to opposite sides of a man, eventually realizing the man is standing in front of a playground.
* SayingTooMuch: [[spoiler:Lamar]]'s crucial error, which Lara notices: "I never said she drowned."
* SayMyName: "Chief, chief... '''ANDERTON!!!'''"
* ScareChord: Eyeballs are placed on an organ's keys, justifying the chord.
* ScienceFiction: One of the better, harder mainstream examples of the 2000s.
* SchrodingersButterfly
* ScrewDestiny: Stated to be simple in the scene where Anderton rolls a ball across a table, stating that changing the future does not change the intent behind people's actions. What is '''''HARD''''' is [[TakeAThirdOption Taking A Third Option.]]
-->'''Anderton''': ''[[http://www.videodetective.com/movies/trailers/minority-report-predetermination-trailer/315764 The fact that you prevented it from happening doesn't change the fact that it was going to happen.]]''
* [[spoiler: SecretProjectRefugeeFamily: The three precogs at the end.]]
* {{Seers}}: The precogs.
* SelfFulfillingProphecy: Exemplified.
* SenselessPhagia: The ''other'' sandwich[=/=]milk combo.
* ShoutOut: The three pre-cogs (Agatha, Arthur and Dashiell) were named after three famous mystery writers, Creator/AgathaChristie, Creator/ArthurConanDoyle and Creator/DashiellHammett.
* ShownTheirWork: Spielberg went out of his way to avert {{Zeerust}} and accurately represent the kind of technology that will likely be available around the time of the film's setting.
* ShutUpHannibal: See BerserkButton.
* SixIsNine: John Anderton gets Crow's hotel room wrong due to the figure 9 or 6 having a screw loose.
* SlidingScaleOfFreeWillVsFate
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: The main point of criticism of the film was that the idealistic happy ending stood in stark, jarring contrast to the dark tone of the rest of the film, to the point that it seems completely out of place. Unsurprisingly, a popular [[AllJustADream alternative interpretation]] of the film sprung up to counteract this. Where the viewer sits on the scale will probably determine which interpretation they find more plausible.
* SoftGlass, SheetOfGlass, DramaticShattering, etc: Considering this future has things like precognition, holographic storage, an automated maglev transport system and other technologically advanced things, they apparently can't make glass that doesn't shatter with the slightest impact.
** In the arrest of Howard Marks, the precrime cops crash through a skylight, sending shards of glass all over the room, especially all over the wife and lover who were directly underneath. Then, Anderton throws Marks onto the bed, ''which is covered in shattered glass''. If this were real life, Marks should have been bloodied up a little bit. Unless all glass in the future shatters without sharp bits, like car windshields. Plausible, but ''expensive.''
* SpaceBrasilia: Averted.
* SpiritualSuccessor: With its classically philosophical and futuristic themes, and its running motifs applied to eyes, while also being based on a story by PhilipKDick, this could be considered to be an example of this trope for ''Film/BladeRunner''.
* SpitTake: The ''other'' sandwich/milk combo in the fridge.
* SpottingTheThread: [[spoiler: The key to an objective observation of the minority report of the death of Agatha's mother was that with the supposed duplicate murder the water was rippling in a different direction, thereby occured at a different time of day.]]
* StarfishRobots: The insect-like tracker robots.
* SuicideByCop: Attempted, averted, succeeded.
* SuperWindowJump
* SwissCheeseSecurity: [[spoiler:Those eyeballs]] sure came in handy afterward.
* SympatheticInspectorAntagonist: Witver. He's obsessed with finding the flaw in Precrime, but drug abuse is a legit reason for busting Anderton and [[spoiler:he doesn't blame Anderton]] for being framed for Crow's murder when he sees the forged evidence.
* TechMarchesOn: With the advent of the Kinect, it seems kinda silly that people need to wear that glove to use the computer in the Precrime office, although it could be argued it is used to prevent interference from other people.
** Justified, for now, in that real-life gestural systems require the use of a glove in order to resolve more detailed gestures more quickly than devices like the Kinect.
** Although it seems a little odd that sometime in the future we seem to lose the ability to transfer data wirelessly.
* TechnologyPorn
* ThemeNaming: the Precogs are named after mystery writers (Creator/{{Agatha|Christie}}, Creator/{{Arthur|ConanDoyle}} and Creator/{{Dashiell|Hammett}}).
* ThrowItIn: The part during the mall chase where Agatha grabs a woman and tells her "He knows. Don't go home." was not in the script. Spielberg added it on the set.
* TitleDrop: About halfway through the film, when Hineman explains the titular concept.
* ToastedBuns: The jetpack cops. Possibly justified, as the [[FutureSpandex suits they wear]] may be fire resistant.
* TrueCompanions: Anderton's team fills this role, obviously caring for him. Fletcher looks almost in tears when they come to arrest him. In the ensuing ChaseScene, Anderton works ''very'' hard not to harm them, and largely succeeds.
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture
* UnnaturallyBlueLighting: This movie uses it extensively. Most scenes have it, and the intensity varies from a light dusting to complete submersion - it is a classic modern example of the trope.
** Lampshaded by Iris Hineman - Anderton cuts himself on a plant in her garden which produces a hallucinogenic toxin, and she tells him that Anderton will soon see a marvellous display of blue objects (by this stage, the audience will have seen little else besides).
* UnusualUserInterface
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: [[spoiler:Burgess]] tries to get Anderton to see things his way on how many people they've saved thanks to Precrime, and how many people they could have saved with it, including [[BerserkButton his son]].
* VideoPhone: They're even installed in future cars, and since cars can drive themselves, people in using the video phone in the car can commit themselves entirely to the phone call and not have to pay attention to the road.
* WaifProphet: all three precogs, but especially Agatha
* TheWatson: Witwer in the opening scenes.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler: Burgess]]
* WrongfulAccusationInsurance: Anderton is apparently forgiven for all the other crimes he committed in attempting to prove he didn't murder anyone. To his credit, when he's fighting off the Precops, he goes out of his way not to harm any of them, going so far as to double check that one had a good grip on a fire escape after he swiped his jetpack and before letting go of him. And the authorities can't exactly prosecute him without describing ''exactly how much of a fool he made them look''.
** Not to mention [[spoiler:revealing Burgess' murder of Agatha's mother]].
* YouCantFightFate: Subverted in John's case. Precog Agatha tells Anderton, "You always have a choice." [[spoiler:Then the guy grabs the gun and dies anyway.]]
** As Danny Witwer points out, the entire concept of Precrime is about succeeding at fighting fate. The Precogs are ''always wrong'' because the murders are prevented.
%% It LOOKS like seeing the murderball STARTED the chain of events that led to John meeting Crowe and executing him (played straight). Only at the last minute does John demonstrate that he could choose not to (averted), so this is a true subversion for John.
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